http://www.technologyreview.com/magazine/jul01/waldrop.asp
Claude Shannon:
Reluctant Father of the Digital Age Technology Review, July/August 2001
By M. Mitchell Waldrop
A juggling unicyclist transformed "information" from a vague idea into a
precise concept that underlies the digital revolution.
Pick up a favorite CD. Now drop it on the floor. Smear it with your
fingerprints. Then slide it into the slot on the player-and listen as the
music comes out just as crystal clear as the day you first opened the
plastic case. Before moving on with the rest of your day, give a moment of
thought to the man whose revolutionary ideas made this miracle possible:
Claude Elwood Shannon.
Shannon, who died in February after a long illness, was one of the greatest
of the giants who created the information age. John von Neumann, Alan Turing
and many other visionaries gave us computers that could process information.
But it was Claude Shannon who gave us the modern concept of information-an
intellectual leap that earns him a place on whatever high-tech equivalent of
Mount Rushmore is one day established.....
posted by Ray at 6/15/2001 12:52:00 PM permanent item link
